African Wars

During World War II Alan Caillou was on a British Intelligence deep penetration patrol in the Western Desert of Africa when he was captured by the Italians in February 1943. This is the story of his capture and subsequent escape after being sentenced for execution for being a spy; brilliantly told as to his experiences during that time. It can be considered not only as an escape book but as a prison book as well. For fans of such prison war films as The Great Escape, Stalag 17, and King Rat. "Something very much out of the ordinary run." - Times Literary Supplement "This book is a record ...

This timely book offers a world history of insurgencies and of counterinsurgency warfare. Jeremy Black moves beyond the conventional Western-centric narrative, reaching back to antiquity to trace the pre-modern origins of war within states. His sweeping study will be essential material for all students of military history.

By the late 1960s, what had been widely heralded as the best qualified, best-trained army in United States history was descending into crisis as the Vietnam War raged without end. Morale was tanking. AWOL rates were rising. And in August 1968, a group of Black soldiers seized control of the infamous Long Binh Jail, burned buildings, and beat a white inmate to death with a shovel. The days of "same mud, same blood" were over, and a new generation of Black GIs had decisively rejected the slights and institutional racism their forefathers had endured.

This book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now.

1879 was a year of bloody conflict on the African continent. Cetsywayo, the Zulu chieftain, had wielded his armies with precision and care, defeating and driving his enemies before him. This courageous force finally butted heads with the British on the sweeping plains of Africa, inflicting grievous losses on the empire’s red coats. This book covers the conflict and the major political and military events that took place. Written the year after the war came to an end, the author weaves a compelling narrative that’s hard to put down.

An Afro-Russian KGB agent returns to his forefathers' homeland — Chicago — to track down a Russian dissident prepared to unleash the ultimate doomsday device. Dissatisfied by the results of the Post World War I Civil Rights movement, angry African-Americans immigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930's, for the promise of equality under Communism. Colonel Damian Turner, a native Afro-Russian KGB agent, returns to Chicago, the former home of his grandfather, as part of a worldwide manhunt for one of his nation's highest ranking officers, Marshall Victor Craig. Craig, infuriated at the ...

For the past three decades, Colin Powell has been among America's most trusted and admired leaders. This biography demonstrates that Powell's decades-long development as an exemplary subordinate is crucial to understanding his astonishing rise from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to the highest echelons of military and political power.

The Barefoot Woman is the story of the author’s mother, a fierce, loving woman who for years protected her family from the violence encroaching upon them in pre-genocide Rwanda. Recording her memories of their life together in spare, wrenching prose, Mukasonga preserves her mother’s voice in a haunting work of art.

Through oral histories and original interviews with surviving family members, Dan Goldberg brings 13 forgotten heroes away from the margins of history and into the spotlight. He reveals the opposition these men faced: the racist pseudoscience, the regular condescension, the repeated epithets, the verbal abuse, and even violence. Despite these immense challenges, the Golden Thirteen persisted—understanding the power of integration, the opportunities for black Americans if they succeeded, and the consequences if they failed.

World War II was raging, with thousands of American soldiers fighting overseas against the injustices brought on by Hitler. Back on the home front, the injustice of discrimination against African Americans was playing out as much on Main Street as in the military. Enlisted black men were segregated from white soldiers and regularly relegated to service duties. At Fort Benning, Georgia, First Sergeant Walter Morris’s men served as guards at The Parachute School while the white soldiers prepared to be paratroopers.

Twelve-year-old Ann Maria Weems works from sunup to sundown, wraps rags around her feet in the winter, and must do whatever her master or mistress orders—but she has something that many plantation slaves don't have. She has her wonderful family around her. To Ann, her teasing brothers, her older sister, and her protective and loving parents are everything. And then one day, they are gone. Separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid, Ann learns something about independence and about love before the opportunity for escape arrives.

At the height of the ideological antagonism of the Cold War, the US State Department unleashed an unexpected tool in its battle against Communism: jazz. From 1956 through the late 1970s, America dispatched its finest jazz musicians to the far corners of the earth, from Iraq to India, from the Congo to the Soviet Union, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Third World and to counter perceptions of American racism.

In the year 1282, after their daring heroics liberating Sicily, Esmeray and Bastone find a haven on the island of Favignana. But the War of the Sicilian Vespers reignites, dragging them into their prior roles as spies. Finding strength in each other, they once more join the patriots to rid the Angevins from Sicily. They return to their sanctuary in Favignana, sharing the welcome challenge of raising their adventurous daughter, Aspasia. Esmeray and Bastone, however, long for the open sea, and she accepts command of a trading vessel, but questions if the sea is the best home for their ...

Craving an antidote to the everyday dull? Dive into "50 Funny Stories," a treasure trove of laughter mined from real-life adventures. This laugh-a-minute collection features fifty side-splitting tales guaranteed to tickle your funny bone and leave you with a grin stretched from ear to ear. Prepare to chuckle, chortle, and maybe even guffaw: From fish-out-of-water moments: Witness the hilarious culture clash when someone encounters a mobile phone for the first time, their "telephone" confusion bringing the house down. To everyday mishaps: Relish in relatable pratfalls and blunders that ...

Cows wandering on roads are an everyday hazard in rural South Africa. They appear suddenly, and their movements are unpredictable. Hitting them can have dire consequences. Dodging Cows is one man's journey from carefree childhood to lazy student to conscripted soldier to passionate farmer, buffeted by the fault lines in South Africa’s history. Gritty and uncompromisingly authentic, this thought provoking novel stirs all the emotions. Part One Follow the adventures of a young boy, Luke Ayres growing up on a farm in southern Natal barely aware of a country divided along racial lines. Part ...

Slave narratives are extremely rare. Of the 100 or so of these testimonies that survive, a mere handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. Now two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the men who wrote them, join that exclusive group.

This book, dedicated to our great-grandson, and launched on "Rhodesia Day" (11 November - the date UDI was declared - in 1965) which is also called Armistice day or Remembrance day elsewhere. I am a guest in his Oamaru home, kindly made available while my good wife, Rina, is resident in the Oamaru Observatory Lifecare facility. Rina trasferred from the Kerikeri Retirement Village in April (28th) - having elected to die there after an unsuccessful operation to clear an intestinal obstruction. That was more than a year ago since her admission to the Waikato Hospital in Hamilton. We are slowly...

These players are not angels. No angels would go where they go, nor do what they do to survive. Often, these are the people on the front line of discovery, taking giant steps in vicious lands, where life is cheap, and the rewards, should they be found, can be extensive. Anthropologists shudder at the very idea of interfering with a native or indigenous people, but when the rewards are on the other side of those pesky savages, well, the opinions can change, all right. But survival can come at a price, and only the strong might make it. Life is what happens while you make your plans… Enjoy....

Explore some of the most important events and people in black history! Two captivating manuscripts in one book: African American History: A Captivating Guide to the People and Events That Shaped the History of the United States; and Haitian Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the Abolition of Slavery.

From lesser-known state figures to the ancestors of Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman, and James Meredith, Mississippi Zion brings the voices and experiences of everyday people to the forefront and reveals a history dictated by people rather than eras. Author Evan Howard Ashford, a native of the county, examines how African Americans in Attala County, after the Civil War, shaped economic, social, and political politics as a non-majority racial group. At the same time, Ashford provides a broader view of Black life occurring throughout the state during the same period.